


a harmony, a miracle (as if it was always that easy)

by sprx77



Series: NaNoWriMo November 2019 [3]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Bodyswap, Except it's these idiots so no it's not, First Kiss, Friends to Lovers, Getting Together, Happy, Introspection, Kissing, M/M, Mutual Pining, Naruto is Just Naruto, Uchiha Sasuke Returns to Konoha, Uzushi0 Rare Pair Events
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-29
Updated: 2019-11-29
Packaged: 2021-02-25 23:15:37
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,728
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21603598
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sprx77/pseuds/sprx77
Summary: It takes stepping into each other's shoes for Naruto and Sasuke to work things out after the Fourth Shinobi War.Literally.Or: When absurd circumstances get them alone together, the universe quietly slides into its rightful place.
Relationships: Uchiha Sasuke/Uzumaki Naruto
Series: NaNoWriMo November 2019 [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1538119
Comments: 6
Kudos: 134





	a harmony, a miracle (as if it was always that easy)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SnowyK](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SnowyK/gifts).



> So this was supposed to be 'vaguely halloween themed' and I just went with bodyswap as a halloweenish trope. Freaky Friday if I have to call it? It was a struggle to write due to midterms and etc but I'm glad I wrote it! Enjoy!

So, the thing is: Naruto’s no stranger to looking at his own face. 

He’s profoundly aware of how he looks, thanks. There are a hundred of him running around on any given mission. Most people know what he looks like, actually. 

His father’s face is up on the mountain and he’s the Hokage’s grandson twiceover. First Sarutobi’s, unofficially, and then Tsunade’s; really, truly, in the way that matters. 

Naruto lives in her house, the Shodaime’s mansion secreted away in a fairy tale forest; he says goodnight to her every night, and she tussles his hair and kisses his forehead like he’s not well on his way to being a jonin. It’s everything he dreamed of as a child, the soft ‘tadaima’ that leaves his mouth in the afternoons slowly becoming just as loud and confident as the ‘okaeri’ that Tsunade and Shizune—the aunt he never thought to ask for—shouting back. 

Sometimes Jiraiya is there, sometimes Anko and Kabuto, but always,  _ always _ someone to welcome him home. 

He’s not home now. 

He’s seen his own face more times than he can count, in clones if not the numerous fancy mirrors at his house—his  _ house! _ —and seeing it now should not be any different. 

It is, though. 

His face looks back at him, blue eyes slightly wide, soft chapped-bitten lips wide open unconsciously. There’s a dusting of freckles across his cheeks that he’s never noticed before, skin sun-kissed and glowing with health. His hair is incredibly, unusually blonde—bright strands that speak of gold and warmth, sunlight and sunflowers. 

Dust motes catch in the sunbeams between them, uniquely turning to catch the light and shadows. He shouldn’t be able to see those either, but he does. A flush is making its way to his warm cheeks—not the ones on his face, but the ones on the face across him. 

The one Sasuke’s wearing. 

“I can see  _ everything _ ,” He says, but it comes out deep and grumbly instead of the awestruck he felt. Across from him  _ his _ blonde brows pinch together on Sasuke’s face. For just a moment his blue eyes flash red and by the time Naruto remembers he’s supposed to feel at least a  _ prickle _ of alarm at that, it’s too late. 

Sasuke—in his tan body—breathes, the sound rattling out. Naruto was always more prone to rasping than most people. Sasuke would say he’s noisy, loud at all times, but Sasuke is wearing his skin right now and preoccupied with the strangeness of it. 

Sasuke’s body breaks out into goosebumps, cold even indoors, and Naruto brings up a pale arm to wonder at it. He’s never cold unless there’s, like, snow on the ground. Even before undoing Kurama’s seal, his own chakra had been so very  _ much _ inside him, warm and all-encompassing. 

It flowed like a summer river and Sasuke doesn’t have that. 

The amount of chakra he has actually feels… really small? And it should be warmer, it’s clearly  _ fire _ , but instead of pressing behind his lungs and running huge all through him, Sasuke’s chakra is like a concentrated fire in his diaphragm. It feels like Naruto would have to  _ reach _ to pull on it, to feel its warmth, and even then like it would only go to  _ exactly  _ where he put it while he was concentrating, and then immediately fall back into the tightly burning center. 

He did realize people’s chakra could feel so fundamentally different, beyond the elemental natures. What did Sakura’s feel like? 

He had a brief moment to thank the gods he was here with Sasuke instead of Sakura. 

Well. 

Now wasn’t that a loaded thought. 

Naruto laughed, and Sasuke’s throat huffed out a low chuckle. He touched his smiling lips with something far beyond wonder but just as soft. 

Oh. 

And it seemed like the room itself darkened, shadows tilting a little, the lights softer and further away. Across from him Sasuke glared halfheartedly with ruddy cheeks and blonde blonde lashes, somehow a larger presence than normal. Somehow looming, somehow  _ close _ . 

Had Naruto’s own shoulders always been so broad? 

Gods, it feels like he’s wanted Sasuke  _ here,  _ Sasuke  _ with him _ , for as long as he can remember. Logically he knows it’s only been years, but well. He’s never been praised for his  _ logic _ . 

Part of him wants to throw his head back and laugh and cry because after years, an age, a childhood, a chase and a  _ war _ the only way he’s actually been able to pull the boy, slipping like sand through his fingers,  _ closer _ is to live in his skin. 

Naruto has wanted to live in Sasuke’s skin for a lifetime, but not like this. 

The enormity of the situation and the smallness of it, a jutsu gone wrong in the cleanup some few weeks after the end of the world—well. It’s such a minor thing, not life-threatening, not  _ world-ending _ , but— 

It’s enormous. It’s everything. It’s the two of them with nowhere else to be, in the same place—the same room, even!—and no awkwardness. 

Well. 

None of the  _ usual _ awkwardness. This amusingly benign situation has cleaved right through the wreckage and the ‘what now’ suffusing the air between them, the stilted air that questioned everything they were to each other, the  _ how do I live with you/I can’t live without you _ hanging like a struck cord as they settled in to reconstruction. Or as the world settled into reconstruction around them, heedless of the unfinished nature of  _ them _ , sweeping them up rudely into the ‘everything else.’ 

It felt like Naruto was constantly tripping over his tongue, thwarted in every instance; like the social minutiae and politics and  _ reality  _ of things were getting in the way of the simpleness of  _ having Sasuke back _ . 

Here the humor punched through all their reasons, the awkwardness parting like clouds around the sun—around the moon—and making way for the undercurrent of  _ them _ . Just them, standing across from each other, with every moment of grazing eye contact, something like static electricity, something like an unstoppable and quiet thrum playing just out of hearing range. 

Just them, in each other’s skin-- 

If more literally than usual-- 

And the whole of the world fell away. 

“Hey.” Sasuke cracked a grin, but it wasn’t a crooked thing in a pale face. Naruto saw the shadow of the  _ real _ expression like an afterimage over his own face, barely saw the way chapped lips in a tan face grinned broadly and without reserve, instead. 

He snorted, imagining the rasp of his own voice; instead it was an equally familiar  _ hn _ that caught in his throat—familiar but so long lost, the kind of noise that hits him like a water dragon. He can imagine hearing Sasuke’s voice, the shuffle of his movement, feeling the electric current of their connection, in the middle of the night, can imagine shooting up without thought, heart pounding. He can almost taste the half-formed thought, the hope and panic. 

Sasuke could be back for years and still the familiar ghosts of him would have Naruto’s eyes darting around, desperate hope frozen in his chest before memory thaws it, the  _ recent _ —recent!!—memories he’s yet to make (but knows he will) surely registering in those moments. 

But why would Sasuke be around, in the middle of the night? 

The thought felt natural but there was no  _ reason _ behind it. Why did everything have to be so confusing? Why couldn’t it all slide into place? 

Sasuke was  _ back _ . 

“Idiot,” Sasuke said, in such a dead tone of voice—dead but for the warmth curling at the edges, fond fond  _ fond _ and he remembered that, didn’t he? From when they were kids? Naruto couldn’t be sure—that Naruto saw only black hair superimposed over gold, pale cheeks where six scars ought to whisker. 

Sasuke stepped forward and oh,  _ right _ —it was just the two of them. 

Everything fell into place. 

A thigh pressed in between his, Sasuke so close he could hear two heart beats. Naruto tried to gulp and only managed a smooth swallow, pulse more a race he could ignore than the crushing weight of what he’d normally feel. Was Sasuke feeling that reaction now, in Naruto’s chest? The unsure throbbing, choking pressure? 

“Oh.” Sasuke breathed, something briefly puzzled in his expression. It slipped away, something blankly triumphant in its wake. He blinked. His eyes were so swallowed by pupil they seemed their normal black, even if Naruto could still make out a faint ring of blue. 

Naruto swallowed hard, the anxiousness getting lost somewhere in the back of his mouth. His throat refused the silly notion of dramatic swallowing. If this was how Sasuke’s body reacted, how did he ever emote anything? 

It was hard to focus on any of that, though, because Sasuke’s soft  _ oh _ had barely faded between them, surprise on an unexpected jinchuuriki’s face and then Naruto couldn’t see anything. 

A kiss. 

Lips against his, soft for their dry state, safe if not sweet—the barest pressures, the surest of pressures, but no pressure in the presumption. Only a candid honesty, somehow shocking, somehow— 

His world shredded apart but his fingers threaded through Sasuke’s hair, part of his brain reeling—he was 12 again and jerking back, sputtering, but no he  _ wasn’t _ . 

He didn’t. 

It hadn’t been a thought, not at all, easy hands reaching up to cup Sasuke’s face as that young, stunned part of him quietened, faded to panic in the background. 

The thigh between his was nice, solid—part of his brain thought of sex and dismissed it immediately, another part heating up with flushed cheeks, but  _ all _ of him thought  _ yes yesyes this all of this  _ as they pressed closer without being forcible about it, for the first time in their lives. As close as possible. Naruto felt surrounded in the best ways, unbothered by the drop in inches, unbothered by the way his eyes felt different, his mouth, the way his eyelashes brushed his cheeks as they closed instinctively. 

Every instinct said  _ yes _ and he would have pulled Sasuke closer but of course he didn’t have to. Sasuke was there already, pressing as close into Naruto’s space as he could manage without being mean about it. By unspoken agreement this was  _ gentle _ , heartbreakingly gentle, even if his mind was blown open by how they could explore the rough stuff later, the desperation and gasps and clinging hands, fingers grasping skin and sweat in the night. 

He felt his pupils dilate, an odd sensation with his eyes closed, and more pronounced than usual. A sense of  _ urgency  _ claimed him, buzzing under his skin, nothing like the slowburn of lazy arousal that usually turned him boneless and hazy. This was  _ hungry _ , fast, and Sasuke pulled back in confusion—Naruto  _ ached _ for a moment, so briefly it hurt—but not far. 

Not far, and he looked at Naruto with some surprise and then— 

Registration. 

Amusement curled his lips, something sharper than Naruto usually wore but perfectly smug and small with Sasuke behind the facial movement. Naruto wanted to  _ elbow  _ him but he wanted to pull those smirking lips—imagined the lips  _ Naruto  _ was wearing actually and wasn’t that weird? That even now he imagined Sasuke’s hard mouth instead of the one he was seeing, the one kissing him?—down and  _ drown _ . 

They could explore the  _ depths _ of their much needed physical relationship later, over weeks and years—the thought almost put him on his knees out of relief, joy so acute it was almost sorrow, disbelief and a cocktail of other things that probably added up to  _ hope _ . 

They could and would find out everything, every catharsis and all the unbelievable  _ closeness _ —the soft things that came with it, the waking and the jokes and the smiles—they had  _ so much 'later’  _ and it was everything Naruto wanted, a future sprawled out in front of them. 

But they also had now. 

_ Right  _ now and Naruto’s hands felt like they should be shaking for all that they were deathly still as he stroked one cheekbone, imagining it white and sharper and attached to a face dark with emotions he always struggled to name. 

Was Naruto making that face now, with deep eyes and lips parted  _ just so _ \--? 

Did Sasuke look at him and see blue eyes big with wonder, expression slack with happiness? Did he know Naruto well enough to translate from his own pale features? 

Sasuke snorted, a loud long sound instead of his usual. He scowled to hear it, and even that became a sulky pout. Finally, he schooled his face of all emotion. It was not blank at all, really, and instead spoke of something tender. His brows relaxed to speak of happiness, the faint curve of lips entirely unconscious. 

Naruto’s face was more expressive and he’d never been  _ thankful _ for it before. 

Yet here Sasuke clearly knew his own facial expressions well enough, subtle though they were, to decipher how Naruto was feeling behind them. It left Naruto feeling oddly vulnerable, being this known—he could hide behind his own expression, however open and expressive, but how could he hide now? 

Just as Sasuke couldn’t hide from him in a face Naruto knew  _ every _ nuance of. 

Like now, the warmth in blue eyes-- 

The breath in his—in Sasuke’s-- lungs halted, caught, drawn. That was a look that Naruto had rarely seen in the mirror, something pink and gentle. Something fond and at peace simultaneously. 

Naruto’s joints felt oddly locked, this body still unfamiliar—whereas his own was filled with the reckless urge to  _ move _ , these limbs felt prone to stillness. A rock, for all that Sasuke’s nature spoke of lightning, of quickness—but of course it was a calculated strike, purposeful, and utterly still before. 

Shocking. 

Naruto surged forward like the lightning in his—Sasuke's—veins, and took his own whiskered face in two hands, and pressed their lips together so that it didn’t matter whose were whose. 

Sasuke leaned into it, something like fragile surprise sounding, and it was nothing like kissing himself. After a certain point, using shadow clones for every little thing becomes second nature. Can’t reach something? Shadow clone. Knife coming at you? Shadow clone. 

It had been a reflex the first time he couldn’t get  _ quite _ the right angle, alone in his bed, and then suddenly he hadn’t been. Alone, that is. And neither he nor the clone had realized anything odd until afterwards. 

This was nothing like kissing himself, and everything like kissing Sasuke. 

Sasuke pulled away, gave another huff that Naruto’s throat transmuted into laughter; Naruto would never be able to hear the sound and ignore how amused Sasuke was when he made it, how a puff of air for him was another person’s laughter. 

He’d known, he thinks, but confirmation is so much sweeter. Tastes sweeter, too, when Naruto follows the laughter to its source, kisses Sasuke again and again because he’s  _ here _ , and because Naruto  _ can _ . 

Sasuke being  _ here _ had never stopped making him giddy, excited even if frustration flew on the edges of it, unexplainable and miserable. 

Turns out it was only half of the equation, Naruto thinks, lightheaded as Sasuke guides him into deeper kisses, into backpeddling steps that end up with Naruto’s back against a wall and dizzy with every happy thing in the world. 

Half of a seal, incomplete, the math right (so far) but not  _ whole;  _ the product wrong no matter how many times you try it because the answer isn’t  _ done _ . 

Sasuke is  _ here _ and that sings like the truth of the universe and birdsong in his bones, but ‘ _ Sasuke is  _ here _ and Naruto can kiss him’ _ explodes like galaxies under his skin, every discordant facet of  _ reality  _ settling into its proper place. 

Naruto kisses Sasuke and everything else falls away. They’ve always been under each other’s skin—both in the annoying way, and like this: one soul in two bodies, yin and yang chakra, sun and moon, hand in hand. 

Someone’s fingers tangle in someone else’s and apostrophes lose all meaning, the border of skin and skin fading until they can’t tell one gasp from another, or whose voice, or which throat. Possession is nine-tenth's of the law and Naruto is owned, owning, and never on his  _ own _ . 

Naruto kisses Sasuke and it tastes like victory. 

It feels like home. 

**Author's Note:**

> Oh my god they don't talk at ALL during this. I need to write a version that's all dialogue. What is wrong with me? no dialogue and no action we die like men using hyperspecific points of view
> 
> Title from "Closer" the Naruto OP, english lyrics. I spent over half an hour looking at OPs so I could find one that had steal-able lyrics. Something about how these two are always almost kissing in the opening themes compelled me


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